Ice
Robert Kramer, US 1969Screenplay: Robert Kramer; Cinematpgraphy: Robert Machover; Editing: Robert Machover, Norman Fruchter; Cast: Tom Griffin, Paul McIsaac, Robert Kramer, Barbara Stone. 16mm, b/w, 133 min. English
"Ice is the waking dream of a militant white urban group in New York in a not-too-distant future," Peter Nau wrote in Filmkritik in April 1971. His piece is entitled "New York nous appartient" – like in Jacques Rivette's Paris film, the conspirators in Ice make up a loose network, surfacing and then disappearing again. Set in a near future modelled on science fiction films such as Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville, the urban guerrillas prepare for the "spring offensive." Fake newsreels report on political developments worldwide; a violent uprising against the oppressive "system" seems imminent. Ice began as a Newsreel project, but resistance within the group to the film's distribution sealed Kramer's decision to leave the collective. Amos Vogel writes in Film as a Subversive Art: "A microcosm of personalities, trends, and problems of today's New Left projected into a very possible future, the film deals with regional offensives, assassinations, terror and counter-terror, dedication, weariness, betrayal." (V.P.)
Courtesy Cinémathèque française
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